I Love My Life, behind the scenes of Jamie Sierra Knits: 29 doesn't feel any different yet?

Happy Monday everyone. We had our first thunderstorm last night, and yesterday we saw our first robins, so spring is here. Amen! My neighbor said I have 'spring fever,' and she is half right, b/c I also have cabin fever, and together these fevers make for a powerful surge of energy when I hit the garden. So, on with the post...

This is just a random note about Hunter being way too cute, and his little fat arms stealing mommy's heart. He's been in sweater/sweatshirts all winter, but he took off his shirt Friday to reveal chubby fat arm goodness. I could just eat it up.

I had a fantastic birthday! Theo made a fabulous breakfast of bacon, eggs, and bisquits, to which I contributed gravy. We then went shopping, of course, aside from gardening, its at the top of my list of things to do right now. I had to take some more pictures of myself, feeling quite darling, if you ask me. LOL. I do have some good wrinkles in my forehead, and some ickiness under my eyes, but I'm still relatively youthful. I'm cool with myself right now. Sidenote: I wore this eye shadow color on my wedding day.

Theo made a snarky comment about my gray hair or something here, so this face was not planned.

I started the shopping extravaganza out at a resale shop where I found a box full of treasures for only $17 dollars: I came home with two nice pottery bowls in vivid green and blue (one is Haegar), one 2 ft tall blue and white vase to hold umbrellas, a scandinavian painted tin, and a enamelware pot for the kitchen-now holding my hot cocoa packets. We grabbed an authentic chocolate chip danish kringle from Fosdals Bakery in Stoughton to eat for lunch (fabulously nutritional, don't you think?), and headed to a local nursery I've always wanted to run into. Do you know what I found there? A Bouganvillea, actually TWO of them came home with me. They are "red," but in the world of bouganvillea red is more like fuschia. I wanted an orange one, but they are so very hard to find up here, so I was more than happy to find a red one. The grin on my face did not fade the rest of the day. I gave the nursery guy my number if he finds himself in posession of an orange bouganvilea. Crossing my fingers.

We went to the mall in East Madison, where I picked up an adorable $15 dog bed for Laura. I toted this giant bag around the mall with me, as I also found some clearance garden reference books, a big $3 blue kitchen bowl, and some decorative glass balls for my birdbaths and the new birdbath fountain my mom got me for my birthday. Good, cheap deals, good times. I had a smoothie from Orange Julius, and went on my merry way.

We stopped at home to regroup and I found an envelope my girlfriend from high school Melissa (Myers Family Blog) full of seeds! This was the best perk of my brithday yet! How cool! I have some to send to her this week, too. I'm hoping to get to work packing them up this morning. So cool to have a garden buddy who gets me! Thanks, Melissa!

We dropped the kids off at Joey's house, so his mommy and daddy could watch the boys while we went for a peaceful dinner. I wanted salad and chicken, so we decided on Olive Garden. Yum sun dried tomatos. I have been eating those almost every day lately, just slamming them on my sandwich at lunch time. My obsession with sun-dried tomato goodness began in Los Olivos CA at this little wine restaurant where I found the world's greatest sandwich. In our neck of the woods the only sun drief tomatos I can find at a restaurant are at OG. The way they put them into a sauce, or bake them with chicken, so yummy, yummy. I did not want the side of mashed potatos that came with my meal, so I asked for a mushroom ravioli or two on the side--they brought me a whole plate of them. I came with way more than half of my meal. I also had some less than good Reisling. Here we are. So happy to be on a date alone again... we are so spoiled!

Then, we went to Coldstone. I was going to make a cake for myself, but you know, I'd eat the whole darn thing. So instead, we pigged out all day, and when the day was over I did not wake up to more cake. Reasonable, I think, for a food lover like myself. Cake Batter ice cream is just about as good as it gets. If you have not tried this ice cream go do it today. Cake Batter is the very best ice cream there is. Theo and I are lucky enough to have eaten at Coldstone's for years now, the original few are near where we lived in CA. And my adorable cousin worked at one of the first chain expansions they made. Love this place.

Before bed, the boys snuggled me a bit.

We watched 3:10 to Yuma before our bedtime. I loved it. Great, great movie. Perfect end to a great birthday. That wacky blonde cowboy made the movie for me. I'll have to look up who he is. See this one, kids.

Yesterday we did our grocery shopping and I headed out to the garden for some serious chores. I moved all the leaves and mulch off the beds and into the firepit, and burned it up--all by myself. I was desperate to get the moldy mulch off of everything. I should have waited a few more weeks, but worst case scenario some of the perrenials get frost damage. Better than a huge mold outbreak. Everything looks good out there. My $1-3 finds are all coming back as of now, even the apple tree and arborvitae. I felt great, getting in the dirt, too. Hunter helped me out while daddy and Ben went and got me a new garden cart, some manure for the veggie bed, and sand for the sandbox. Hunter was a great helper, but he would not let me have my rake. He insisted on raking the snow. He has his own rake, his size, but he wanted mine. He also spent a good chunk of time on his ride-on Thomas scootin' all about the yard. When he works hard his little tongue sticks out of his mouth--too freakin' cute!